Walking with the Wise #157: Inviolable and Unavoidable

“Disaster pursues sinners,
but the righteous are rewarded with good.”
—Proverbs 13:21

God has established spiritual laws just as He has established physical laws. And the spiritual law of sin states that there are consequences for every sin—destruction, disaster, difficulty, and worst of all—death. As the apostle wrote, “For the wages of sin is death…”—Romans 6:23. Doing sin is just like work. The more that you do it the more you get paid. And the payment for all sin is death. The fact that we die demonstrates that we are sinners, every single one of us.

Such words do not invoke any hope. Indeed, Paul captured our hopelessness when he said, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”—Romans 7:24. We are sinners, lost in the sea of our own disobedience, fearfully awaiting the day when death’s icy hand will come knocking at our door! And beyond death there remains only one thing, the fearful expectation of judgment. No one will be able to escape the day of God’s all-consuming wrath! We will be judged, each one of us, according to our works (cf. Revelation 20:13). And because all of our righteous deeds are like filthy rags in God’s sight (cf. Isaiah 64:6), we will find ourselves wanting on that awful day!

There is hope! Even after Paul said, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” he said,  

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin”—Romans 7:24-26. 

He then said some of the most heartwarming and hope-giving passages in all of Scripture:  

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death”—Romans 8:1-2.

God has freed us! And has enabled us by His Spirit to be set free to seek His face! As Paul wrote just a few chapters earlier,

“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality”—Romans 2:6-11.

Pursue sin and there will be disaster following fast after you. Pursue God and that which is good, and you will be rewarded. It’s as simple as that. Live for the Lord and He will honor you; live for yourself and disaster comes for you.

Pursue hard after Christ, do what He says, and you will have eternal life in, through, and with Him who is, who was, and who forever will be—Jesus Christ, our Savior, Lord, and God. Amen.